Pakistan’s pace of COVID-19 vaccination remains ‘very slow’

Islamabad [Pakistan], July 2 (ANI): Pakistan has vaccinated around five per cent of its total population and 10 per cent of those eligible with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Yet, it still remains one of the low-ranked countries where the pace of vaccination remains very slow.

According to Dawn, the data of federating units show that 35 per cent of the eligible population have been vaccinated in Islamabad whereas only 3 per cent of people opted for vaccination in the Balochistan province.

Experts believe that lack of education, misconceptions, vaccine hesitancy and propaganda were the reasons behind the slow pace of vaccination. A majority of people wanted to get inoculated near their residences and long waiting time has kept them away.

Meanwhile, 25 per cent of the global population has been vaccinated, including 40 per cent in Turkey, 50 per cent in the United States and 65 per cent in Israel and the United Kingdom receiving at least one shot.

According to documents available with Dawn, there are over 125 million people (over 18 years of age) eligible for vaccination in Pakistan. So far, over 20.9 million people have registered themselves for vaccination in the country.

Over two million people have been fully vaccinated in Punjab, one million in Sindh, 460,000 in Khyber P, 200,000 in Islamabad, 150,000 in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and over 60,000 each in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Microbiologist Professor Dr Javed Usman, while talking to Dawn, agreed that there was more reluctance in Pakistan against vaccination.

“Majority of people answered that they will get sick, their DNA will be changed, they will contract COVID-19. One of the female post-graduate students, who conducted survey of graduate females, told me that majority of females said that vaccine will become reason of infertility and others said that they can die due to vaccine,” he said.

Vice-Chancellor of University of Health Sciences Dr Javed Akram said that education level and vaccine hesitancy were the major issues of Pakistan.

According to the data of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 40 deaths and 1,037 new cases were reported on Thursday. There were 31,767 active cases, while 2,102 patients had been admitted to hospitals. (ANI)